Wednesday, 25 January 2017

ISIS Media Release for January 24, 2017

VIDEOS

1. Knights of Diwan:

The second major video release in the month of January 2017 came as Iraqi PM al-Abadi announced the liberation of East Mosul. The video, titled "Knights of Diwan" stands out for its first-ever footage of more than a dozen bomb attacks launched from drones. The video was released on ISIS terrorist channels on January 24 from
“Wilayat Ninawa,” ISIS’ name for the Nineveh Governorate of Iraq that
includes Mosul. You can watch the trailer for the video that was released a day earlier here.

English terrorist channels later released the video with the title
translated as “The Knights of Dawawin,” instead choosing to use the
Arabic word for “administrative bureau.”

In the 38-minute video, ISIS is shown conducting suicide bombings in
Mosul. However, the highlight and premise of the video is the footage of
Islamic State militants using UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to carry
and drop bombs on American coalition forces.

ISIS has been using “exploding drones” for months, however this is the first footage of them doing so. In October 2016, The New York Times reported that the Pentagon was struggling with a new aerial threat from ISIS.

The UAVs shown in the video have about 5-6′ wingspans and repeatedly take out soldiers and tanks.

According to Rita Katz,
director of the terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group, the
explosions from the UAV are much smaller than those of VBIED
(vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) ops, but may be used to
conserve the population of would-be suicide bombers in ISIS’ ranks.

Also featured in the video was a suicide attacker who appears no older than 14, continuing #ISIS' ongoing trend of using kids in such ops pic.twitter.com/cvz4mwNKm8